One of the great restaurants in France. On the first floor of the Hotel de Paris in place de casino in Monaco, Le Louis XV Alain Ducasse. Despite Alain Ducasse's name in front of the restaurant don't expect to find him there in person. Having a big empire of restaurants worldwide, many in France, UK, Russia, Qatar, Tokyo, he spends his time travelling between them making sure everything is to his taste. For the Louis XV Franck Cerutti and Dominique Lorry are there to do the job.
As of 2015 Ducasse has 3 three michelin starred restaurants, Le Louis XV in Monaco, Le Meurice in Paris with Christophe Saintagne and lastly the Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester in London. His newly re-opened fish-vegetable-cereal oriented restaurant in Plaza Athenee gained already two stars, aspiring a third star next year.
The restaurant has one of the biggest wine cellars in the world, with over 400.000 bottles of wine. There was a lunch menu with 3 courses, cheese, mignardises, a bottle of wine, a bottle of water and coffee, which we chose. There was also a menu for the 25 years of the restaurant with more courses including two desserts but no beverages.
We started with some bread and butter and an amuse-bouche. The bread is itself a reason to dine in this restaurant. There is a wide selection to choose. I took the borage (green) one, a baguette and later the semolina. All three were excellent. There were two types of butter, normal and salted.
The amuse bouche, a soft mild taste bread with marinated anchovy fillet, quail egg, vegetables and salad leaves with extra virgin olive oil. A dish that can only stand on its own only if you have amazing quality ingredients. In Monaco vegetables, fruits and seafood are always of unparalleled quality, especially the ones used in restaurants of this calibre.
The starter, rabbit roll stuffed with finely chopped spinach, with a mini salad of leaves and a small amount of dressing.
The main course was a locally caught fish made for 2 persons and then filleted on the table, after they presented it to us. The fish was as fresh as it possibly gets and had an amazing depth of flavor. The vegetables were cooked to perfection retaining their texture and flavor. On top the sauce was made of the juice of the fish. Such a simple dish was the best fish I have ever tasted, and as good as a fish someone is expecting it to possibly be.
Comté, a cow blue cheese and Roquefort. Cheese was in excellent condition and came from Bernard Antony.
The dessert, the famous Louis XV au croustillant de pralin. It has a crispy hazelnut base, chocolate ganache, topped with melted chocolate and a gold leaf.
At the end of the meal we were offered some mignardises, lemon tarts, florentine biscuit, chocolates and vanilla macarons.
The service was flawless, attentive, very professianl and friendly, the quality of the ingredients was superb and the food was cooked to perfection. If you combine them with the amazing setting, palacial interior decor or the exterior terrace with views of the casino square (ideal for watching the formula 1 race in May) you have one of the best restaurants in the world.
very nice photos!!one of my favorites!!
ReplyDeletei could travel over there just to have lunch on that restaurant...
ReplyDeleteYou wouldnt regret it :D
ReplyDelete